Catholic League Responds to Call for Pope Benedict Prosecution

SNAP, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, assisted by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), has petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Pope Benedict XVI for allegedly covering up "crimes against humanity of rape and other sexual violence committed around the world." CCR attorney Pam Spees claims that "Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican."

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

As the Catholic League recently documented [click here], SNAP does not exist to protect children; rather, its goal is to smear the Catholic Church. That it would team up with the most radical left-wing legal organization in the nation, CCR, is hardly surprising. After all, never once has CCR bothered to protest the incredible assault on the due process rights of priests over the last decade.

Most cases of molestation did not involve children, and they did not involve rape. The most common victim was a post-pubescent male victimized by homosexuals, the most common offense being "inappropriate touching." The figures being bandied about are nothing more than a wild guess provided by the Church's critics; they bear no relationship to reality. How do we know? Because when hard data are available on these matters, the projections are proven wholly inaccurate.

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Moreover, it is a lie to say that sexual abuse is being covered up at the highest levels of the Vatican. The homosexual scandal took place during the sexual revolution, and most of the offenses ended a quarter-century ago. To charge otherwise is scurrilous.

The Holy See is not a member of the ICC, making it difficult to prosecute. Nonetheless, the Catholic League will contact the ICC today, providing documentation of our own that demonstrates how partisan this complaint really is.